Anders Breivik reenacts Utoya attack for Norwegian police

Norwegian police brought Anders Breivik back to the Utoya island over the weekend so that he could walk them through his attack, allowing them to better understand what happened that day.

Kyrre Lien/Scanpix Norway/AP

The Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang's front page published Sunday Aug. 14, showing the confessed terrorist Anders Behring Breivik as he is taken back to Utoya island by police on Saturday for a reconstruction of the July 22 terror attacks. The newspaper VG, is the only media present to observe the reconstruction.

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August 15, 2011

By Frank RadosevichCorrespondent

Stockholm, Sweden

Norwegian police brought Anders Behring Breivik back to the lake island of Utoya Saturday so that he could walk them through the site of one of last month's twin terror attacks that he admitted to carrying out.

In a video posted by the Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang, Mr. Breivik is seen boarding a ferry with police to Utoya, where he gunned down 69 youth camp attendants on July 22. He wears a bulletproof vest and harness attached to a long rope, keeping him tethered to an officer at all times.

The decision to bring Breivik back to the island anger many Norwegians, but police said it helped them fill in the blanks.

"We feel we have a fairly good overview of how everyone died or was shot now, even though there are still details to fill in," police prosecutor Paal-Fredrik Hjort Kraby told reporters in Oslo on Sunday. "He was not unaffected, but he showed no remorse for his actions."

Police spent eight hours traversing the island as Breivik calmly walked them through his hour-long rampage on Utoya, which followed his detonation of a car bomb in downtown Oslo that killed eight people and damaged government buildings.

In one photograph posted by Verdens Gang from the visit, Breivik stands near the island shoreline shouldering an imaginary rifle as officers look on.

“It was just right to bring Anders Behring Breivik to Utoya, but for families it's very tough to see pictures of the killer,” Mette Yvonne Larsen, a lawyer representing several survivors and families of the dead, told Norwegian Radio on Sunday.

The Norwegian government will observe the one-month anniversary of the attacks on Aug. 21 with a large ceremony in Oslo. The event, though closed to the public, will be broadcast live throughout the country and will feature some on Norway’s most renowned musical artists and actors.

In addition, mourners and survivors of the shootings on Utoya will be allowed to visit the island for the first time since the attacks on Friday and Saturday.

“In doing this, we wish to give the bereaved and survivors the opportunity to visit Utoya within a professional and justifiable framework,” Justice and Police Minister Knut Storberget said in a statement.

Breivik, who portrayed himself as a modern-day crusader, admitted to carrying out the attacks but called his actions necessary and denied any criminal responsibility.

On Friday, the Oslo district court will decide whether he will spend the next four weeks in isolation. It remains to be seen if Breivik will attend the hearing and whether the procedures will be open to the public.

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